28/11/2023
In the most agonizing moment of His life, Jesus cried out to His Father, . .. Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done (Luke 22:42). The Amplified Bible says, . . . Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but (always) Yours, be done.
Jesus accepted His cross—dying on Calvary—
which provided the way through which all mankind might become part of the family of God. Jesus found no way out of the cross experience. No one else could take His place. He faced His Gethsemane alone. When He was undergoing the agony of the cross experience,His disciples fell asleep instead of praying, and later Peter denied that he even knew the Christ.
And there appeared an angel unto him from
heaven, strengthening him.
And being in an agony he prayed more
earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great
drops of blood falling down to the ground.
And when he rose up from prayer, and was
come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow, And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.
Luke 22:43-46
Today, you and I must face our own cross
experiences. That cross is different for each person. Your cross experience will correspond to whatever God asks you to do. To be productive for the Kingdom of God, there is no alternative to—no way out of— dying to self. Jesus said, And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:27 NIV).
To reject your cross experience is, literally, to
play games with God. That is, to reject your cross experience means that you are not really serious about the things of God, and He is not a top priority with you. When you are willing to die to self—to let the old flesh die—you become serious about the things of
God. To die to self is to begin to live!
There is a price to pay to be fit for the Master's use.
If a man therefore purge himself from these,
he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.
2 Timothy 2:21
To be acceptable for the Master's use, you must lay aside the weights of anything that would hold you to the earth realm; you must learn to yield to the Holy Spirit; you must let the old flesh die; and then you must learn to live continually in the realm of the Holy Spirit.
